Ruth Anne “Bone” Boatwright is born into the most notorious family in her rural South Carolina community. Her mother, Anney, as well as her aunts and uncles try their hardest to give Bone a happy childhood despite their poverty and outcast status, and to instill in her a sense of dignity---Anney’s ongoing battle to remove the stamp of “Bastard” from Bone’s birth certificate is just one example. Life in the Boatwright family has never been easy but when Anney marries the sweet-talking and hot-tempered Daddy Glen, Bone is faced with a whole new—and troubling---adversary.

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